In a debate that underscores their sharp philosophical differences, San Diego’s two mayoral candidates square off over the controversial Barrio Logan Community Plan Update, approved by the City Council on Sept. 17, and a referendum by shipyard and their vendors to overturn the 5-4 vote. The plan update would rezone the 1,000-acre community southeast of downtown San Diego to separate industrial and residential uses. Shipyards and their suppliers argue that a buffer zone would restrict their ability to expand and that they could eventually be forced to relocate, driving up costs and making it harder for San Diego to compete for shipbuilding and repair contracts. The issue will come back to the City Council in mid-December, with members deciding whether to rescind approval or put the plan up for public vote on the June 2014 ballot.

David Alvarez: Community plan update good for residents and businesses

Barrio Logan’s Community Plan Update (BLCPU), approved by the City Council on Sept. 17, breaks a 30-year history of toxic land-use planning that allowed houses, parks and schools to intermingle with polluting industrial properties.

The newly approved plan — which the city developed through an intensive, public, five-year facilitated community input process — will finally separate industrial uses from homes and schools in the interest of breathable air, affordable community housing and support for the maritime workforce. Specifically, the BLCPU creates an important buffer (the “transition area”) between residents and industrial uses, including the shipyards.

I grew up in Barrio Logan in a home located next to a chrome-plating facility. At that time I developed asthma, as many children do in Barrio Logan. Residents have faced decades of neglect by the city and a patchwork of incompatible land uses that threaten quality of life. Zoning allowed residential homes to be located only a block away from shipyards such as NASSCO and General Dynamics.

Having brothers who work in the maritime industry, I fully understand that the shipyard jobs are important to not only my family but also to the community — and to the larger San Diego economy. The BLCPU will increase employment by 47 percent from just over 10,000 jobs to nearly 15,000, according to the environmental impact report for the plan.

This prime heavy industrial zone will centralize the maritime-industrial operations that support industries on the waterfront, such as welding shops, refinishers, ship-repair support, and other port-related industries, while allowing such existing businesses to remain elsewhere in the community.

During the five-year process, in response to concerns by maritime representatives, I met repeatedly with various stakeholders and subsequently crafted a compromise in order to address the concerns raised and allow the plan update to move forward. The City Council’s approval of the plan allowed for Barrio Logan families to finally have a healthier community and for all of us to build a vibrant future based on the multifaceted character of the community.

This plan represents a compromise that I, along with a majority of the City Council, believe is in the best interest of the city. Unfortunately, out-of-state billionaires launched and funded a referendum process to scare voters and overturn the democratically created and approved plan. It is truly regrettable that their paid petition gatherers have spread outright lies to fool voters into signing the referendum petition, threatening the City Council’s effort to create jobs and a healthy community for children.

I’ve spoken to San Diego residents who were told by paid signature gatherers that 46,000 jobs will be lost, when the plan actually increases jobs by increasing prime industrial land, giving certainty to developers and businesses that want to locate in the community, and reducing conflicts between residential and industrial areas. One woman was told that the plan threatens tens of thousands of local middle-class jobs, but the plan actually estimates a 47 percent increase in employment. The most egregious lie told by signature gatherers is also the easiest to disprove: it is categorically false that all maritime business must leave under the plan, all existing businesses can stay and expand up to 20 percent.

More than five years of work and $3 million of public money are being exposed to dirty politics from out-of-town interests who are trying to overturn the community’s plan so many have worked so hard to develop. If the City Council’s approval of the BLCPU were to be rescinded, children will continue to suffer from environmental injustice and the resulting health impacts. Even more importantly, if special interests are allowed to derail this community plan, then every other community plan throughout the city will be threatened.

The plan update was an open, transparent model for community-involved planning, and I’m proud of the majority of the City Council who stood up to threatening and bullying tactics to approve it. I put my trust in voters to see the referendum process for what it is: a greedy attempt to keep the status quo at the expense of hardworking residents and workers. This June, don’t fall for the scare tactics and lies. Tell out-of-town interests you won’t let our community planning process be hijacked in Barrio Logan or anywhere else in San Diego. Vote to respect an open and transparent process that led to the first planning effort in Barrio Logan in more than 30 years. Vote to protect and expand a thriving maritime industry to benefit all of San Diego. Vote for a community to have separation between industry and homes, and a healthier future.

Alvarez, a Democrat, is a first-term councilman who represents the city’s southernmost neighborhoods.

San Diego’s vibrant and diverse neighborhoods play a critical role in making our city a great place to live. Our next mayor must put our communities first by repairing our roads and infrastructure, enhancing public safety and planning responsibly to ensure we create economic opportunities for all San Diegans.

As mayor, I will pursue a balanced approach that takes into account the needs of all community members, including workers who depend on good-paying, middle-class jobs to support their families.

Nowhere is the importance of balance more apparent than Barrio Logan. Earlier this year, the City Council passed — by a razor-thin 5-4 majority — a flawed update to the Barrio Logan Community Plan. This proposed community blueprint threatens a key component of our regional economy — San Diego’s shipyards.

According to a 2012 study, San Diego’s maritime industry provides the region with $14 billion a year and 46,000 jobs. The shipyards are directly responsible for more than 7,000 of those jobs, which pay average annual salaries of approximately $50,000, and are indirectly responsible for thousands more. The economic impact goes beyond shipyards and their suppliers. The shipyards contribute to employment and economic growth throughout Barrio Logan and the surrounding area, including restaurants, shops and other small businesses. Between 2010 and 2011, the three shipyards alone spent $145 million with Barrio Logan businesses, supporting more than 1,400 jobs across the region.

Unfortunately, the Barrio Logan Community Plan Update places these substantial benefits at risk. It eliminates significant amounts of industrial land in Barrio Logan where suppliers that produce goods and services for the Navy and shipyards currently operate. Many existing maritime businesses and new shipyard vendors that want to expand would be required to go through an expensive, time-consuming and uncertain permitting process.

Over time, this new zoning could force suppliers to relocate or close, creating uncertainty for the Navy, which depends on the shipyards to build and repair a significant portion of its fleet. With the constant threat of military base closures, we can’t make San Diego a less competitive place for the Navy to do business. Just look at the economic impact in other cities where a major employer left to see the detrimental effects this could have on San Diego’s communities, families and jobs.

The fact is that other land uses can be built almost anywhere in San Diego, but the shipyards, their suppliers and other businesses that make up the working waterfront cannot be relocated.

A diverse coalition of Barrio Logan residents, maritime companies, regional business organizations, labor unions and community leaders recently launched two referendums with the intent of overturning the plan. In less than 60 days, this coalition collected more than 100,000 signatures from registered voters in the city, demonstrating that San Diegans are concerned about the effects of the Plan. Signatures from the first referendum were validated and certified by the City Clerk on Nov. 19, and a second batch of signatures is expected to be submitted and certified in the next few weeks.

In December, due to the success of the referendums, the City Council will be faced with a decision to either repeal this flawed plan and create a better solution, or send the decision to the voters on the June 2014 ballot. I urge my City Council colleagues to join me in going back to the drawing board to find a solution that protects middle-class jobs in San Diego.

Barrio Logan’s development guidelines and patchwork of different zones desperately need an overhaul. This must be fixed, but not at the expense of a segment of our economy that creates thousands of jobs and contributes billions of dollars to our economy. I agree with most parts of the plan, but we must continue to work together to address the remaining community concerns and provide strong, long-term protections for our families and the jobs on which they depend.

In many ways this issue reflects the choice San Diegans have in the mayor’s race. It underscores a fundamental difference between my mayoral opponent and me. I support the good-paying jobs provided by the maritime sector because it contributes to a healthy economy, creating revenue for more paved roads and better neighborhoods for our families.

This is a difference I’ll be speaking about throughout the campaign as I talk with San Diegans about the very clear choice in this election. We must have leadership that recognizes how to create and protect the jobs our San Diego families rely on — in Barrio Logan and throughout San Diego.

Faulconer, a Republican, has been a member of the City Council since 2006 and represents District 2.